Equal Gaze

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Disenchantment is the act of removing the halo.
Not because someone is a national leader should their wrongdoing be painted as virtue;
Not because someone is an ordinary citizen should their suffering be romanticized as purity.

People are, simply, people.
Once the shells of power and occupation are stripped away,
what remains are the same desires, fears, and limitations.

Some evils, cloaked in authority, appear solemn;
Some evils, hidden within daily noise and irritability, go unnoticed.
Empathy lets us see their wounds,
Disenchantment prevents us from excusing them.

True equality is not about elevating anyone, nor about demeaning anyone,
but about using the same measure:
to condemn evil and to honor goodness alike.

Leaders can be timid, citizens can be noble.
The loud may sometimes be fragile, the silent not necessarily harmless.
Everyone oscillates between good and evil;
no category of people deserves innate privilege,
nor must any be innately lowly.

Therefore, equality is not a polite gesture,
but a calm gaze:
seeing the person, not the title;
seeing the action, not the halo.

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